Even though we live in a digital age, two-thirds of Rhode Island cities and towns still don’t allow their residents to participate in public meetings remotely.
That’s according to a report from the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, which determined that local municipalities have made “insufficient progress” in providing virtual access to public meetings since a 2023 report on the same topic.
“It is interesting that in 2022, all of these public bodies had to be accessible,” said Zoe Chakoian, communications associate for the ACLU of Rhode Island. “Now that they don’t, a lot of them aren’t.”
Chakoian is referring to executive orders that required Rhode Island cities and towns to provide remote access to public meetings during the COVID pandemic. The orders expired in 2022.
Rhode Island law requires public bodies to open their meetings to the public. But today, it doesn’t require that to include remote access.
The report shows that only 11 of the state’s 39 municipalities meet the ACLU’s standard for maximum remote access for town/city council and school committee meetings: livestreaming meetings; recording and archiving meetings; providing online links to agenda item documents; and allowing remote participation by the public.
While most Rhode Island communities livestream town council and school committee meetings, not all of them do. Exeter and West Greenwich don’t provide any virtual access to town council meetings, according to the report. Neither do the school committees in Johnston and New Shoreham.
In this day and age, Chakoian says municipalities have no excuse for not giving residents the ability to virtually participate in public meetings. She says some of the state’s smaller communities – like Richmond – provide full remote access to town council and school committee meetings, despite having leaner budgets.
“Even the Lincoln town council allows for people to email comments in,” said Chakoian. “So it doesn’t necessarily have to be one-size-fits-all for these councilors and committees to enable the community to take part in meetings from afar.”
Chakoian is encouraging cities and towns that fared poorly in the report to improve virtual access for their residents, especially as the November elections draw closer.
“If they can include more of their residents in these public discussions and these public meetings, that’s ideal,” she said. “Participation in local government strengthens our democracy.”
